Several articles were published in the Wall Street Journal drawing from the Journal’s Survey of CEO Compensation conducted by the Hay group.

The articles all tout the fact that CEO pay is up (according to the survey) but so too is shareholder return. As Joann Lublin writes in her article Paychecks for CEOs Climb, “The chief executives of the largest U.S. public companies enjoyed bigger paydays in their latest fiscal year, as share prices recovered and profits soared amid the country’s slow emergence from recession.” Is this really “pay for performance” as the articles seem to suggest or is a “rising tide lifting all boats”?